Spurs notebook: Parker, Duncan fare well behind MVP winner James

In the least surprising result since last year’s NBA Most Valuable Player balloting, Miami forward LeBron James won his fourth MVP trophy in a landslide Sunday, earning all but one first-place vote.

The Spurs, meanwhile, placed two players in the top seven for the first time in 15 years.

Point guard Tony Parker finished sixth in voting with 86 points, including two second-place votes, while forward Tim Duncan came in seventh with 65 points and two more second-place votes.

It marked the first time the Spurs had two players poll so high together since 1997-98, when Duncan placed fifth after his rookie season and David Robinson came in seventh.

Throughout a season that saw the 30-year-old Parker flirt with career highs in scoring (20.3 points per game) and assists (7.6 per game), coach Gregg Popovich trumpeted his All-Star point guard as an MVP-type player.

Golden State coach Mark Jackson, whose team faces the Spurs in a Western Conference semifinal series beginning Monday, agreed.

“I thought this year, he had every right to be in the MVP discussion,” Jackson said. “He elevated his play, and that’s scary to say because he was a top-notch point guard before.”

At age 37, Duncan averaged 17.8 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.7 blocks for his best statistical season since 2009-10.

It added up to Duncan’s first top-10 MVP finish since 2007-08, when he also placed seventh. Parker slipped a spot from last season, when he came in a career-best fifth.

Medical miracle: Battling a torn right hip flexor, an injury suffered in Game 1 of the Warriors’ first-round series against Denver, All-Star forward David Lee isn’t expecting to play much, if at all, in Game 1 of the series.

For now, Lee is satisfied he will be available if Jackson wants him for a short stretch Monday.

“It’s not like my injury is going to recover these next couple of weeks,” Lee said. “It’s torn and will probably require surgery when the season’s over, but I’ve gotten the green light to do what I can until that point.”

Jackson said Lee will be active for Game 1 but stopped short of saying he would play.

Dubious streak: Golden State has dropped 29 in a row in San Antonio, a streak dating to Feb. 14, 1997, nearly four months before the Spurs drafted Duncan.

Guard Klay Thompson said the Warriors will not be daunted, especially after winning Game 2 on the road in the first round against a Denver team that had won 24 in a row on its home floor.

“They didn’t expect us to win in Denver,” Thompson said. “This (Spurs) team is capable of losing here. We have to play a great 48 minutes of basketball. Not good, great.”